I who am about to graduate Salute you.

Good evening families, teachers, faculty, and friends. Thank you for coming tonight.To the Bishop Brady High School class of 2010—welcome to June 11th. We did it. This is our graduation. Before I turn my attention back to my fellow seniors, I would like to thank everyone—present and absent—who has led us to this moment. Parents, you especially know that this ceremony isn’t just for us. This graduation represents everything it took for us to get here, and it’s impossible to deny the simple fact that we did not do it alone. To teachers, family, friends, and others, as well as parents: even if don’t entirely realize it now, all of us will understand one day how much we have been given. Thank you. Now, seniors, it’s our turn. I don’t know if you realized this… but high school graduation is kind of a big deal. Please, enjoy it, because by the end of the night it’s going to be over.
We went through a lot of uncertainty coming into school as seniors. We narrowed down a college list, ran around to get forms signed, stayed up late working on essays, and finally, finally, applied to college—only to sit and work and wait and take midterms and just generally deal with not knowing where we’re headed. That has been solved though, and if you look right outside this gym you can see a wall full of the choices we finally made. Beyond these next few years, some of us are more certain than others of what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. The near future, though, is now defined for all of us. Very soon, we are going somewhere.
Even sooner though, you’re going to get up and go for a little walk down this aisle. You will shake a hand and be handed a diploma and then walk back to your seat—and somehow this is supposed to signify the fact that you haven’t wasted the past four years of your life. Whether you understand it or not, all of us have done something important here. We have gotten through four years of college preparatory high school. Fewer people than you would think are able to say that. I can’t even begin to talk about what has gone on here since 2006, because high school is simultaneously an extremely unifying and an extremely diversifying experience. How 112(?) can people go through roughly the same set of classes and rules and emerge with such different goals is a testament to your individuality. To anyone who sees us, it is obvious that we are not a homogenous group, and when this night is over we will leave to head in very different directions. Right now, though, right here, we are in the same room, once again experiencing the same thing. For just a little longer, we are a class.
Soon, you will get up as individuals and, one at a time, take that little walk down the aisle. Now, this is the last time most of you will hear from me; I’m done talking about Literary Magazine at Monday Morning Meetings, I’m done running back and forth between homerooms yelling about yearbook, and never again will you hear me answer a question in English class. It’s okay, you can cheer if you want to. So, for this last time I speak to you, I’m giving you a challenge. If you don’t challenge yourself already, I would consider starting now, because—trust me on this one—daring yourself to do better and then following through is a great feeling. I’m starting you off now: a challenge from Lauren Covalucci, to the class of 2010. When you walk up there and take your diploma, know why you’re doing it. Understand yourself. Understand why you just accepted responsibility for all the lessons you were supposed to learn these past four years. Understand why you applied to colleges, why you didn’t just quit sophomore year, why, at some point, you stopped living for your parents and started living for yourself. I can’t tell you why you’re going to accept your diploma. Your reason is going to be your own. When you officially graduate from Bishop Brady High School, I ask only one thing: know why you’re doing it.
Welcome to June 11, 2010. You did it. This is your graduation.